There has been a flood of media attention regarding a petition on Change.org asking to carry guns under Ohio’s open carry law at the Republican convention.
While the motivation behind the proposal and its support are fascinating, in reality the petition could receive 200 million signatures and it wouldn’t have the slightest chance of implementation. Our first and second amendment rights have been stripped from us at events like this under the National Special Security Event (NSSE) designation. Given the recent changes in HR 347, the federal government now has the power to arrest anyone with a weapon in or around a NSSE event and imprison him for up to a decade.
Why is the NSSE designation so important to this discussion? To put it simply, once an event is designated a NSSE it is under the protection of the Secret Service and federal law. The Secret Service is responsible for securing and protecting these events. The Secret Service can allow the local state police to enforce state laws and arrest people, but as the federal government has designated these events as “federal property” during the event, federal enforcement can supersede any state laws they elect, including your rights to legally carry a gun.
What is HR 347? HR 347 made a small change to the existing Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act, extending the definition of a restricted area to any area where a person protected by the Secret Service “is or will be temporarily visiting”. The change was not initially recognized for what it is – an expansion of government power to stifle dissent - until we began to witness its arbitrary and uneven enforcement at primary campaign events last year. The application of HR 347 is more than a cautionary lesson on the wisdom of allowing the government to limit your rights and trusting it to use this power fairly and evenly; it demonstrates that those in power are more concerned with maintaining the status-quo than in respecting the freedom of expression of the citizens they serve.
It would be easy to explain away my criticisms of this law, to assume that I have exaggerated the implications its enforcement may have for our rights as citizens. If you believe this, I invite you to legally carry a gun under your state laws near the Republican convention or to any NSSE event that the presidential candidates are attending in your state. This was a legally protected right just a few years ago, which has now been effectively surrendered under HR 347. Google “Obama AR 15 Arizona” to see one well documented case.
But if you attempt to exercise this freedom and end up in handcuffs, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The rules have changed.